Halflife2: Momentum
by LittleBiscuit
Summary: What happened between the events after Half life and Gordon's arrival in Half life2. A story about what and how things might have happened in the mean time, following some of the main characters.
1. Prologue

I recently discovered the joys of the game that is called half life (and all it's follow ups, especially half life 2) and I couldn't resist the urge to write my own take on things that might have happened between the Black Mesa incident, and the return of Gordon Freeman in Half Life 2. Let's see what our beloved characters have been up to in the mean time.

I actually started this fan fiction to write a scene that I've had in my mind for quite a long time, but, as not to barge into the story in mid action I wanted to write a beginning to the story.

However, it seems the introduction to the story got quite out of control and I'm now at the beginning of a story I wasn't even planning on telling at all!

Hope you enjoy :)

Half Life2: Momentum

Prologue

The city lay dormant, almost waiting for something to happen. It was quiet, but not the still, lifeless quietness of a city that was sleeping. It was a fearful expectant quietness. Of a city that was afraid to make a sound. Even though it seemed the city was at rest, nothing was further from the truth. There were small sounds everywhere, and it was highly unlikely that the majority of the city´s population, human or otherwise, was asleep. There were the sounds normally associated with the city; The endless droning voice of the city's own human puppet leader coming out of every TV that happened to be on, there were the shuffling noises of civil protection squads patrolling the streets, the endless buzzing of city scanners and of course the klaxons near the train station, which seemed to indicate the coming and going of an endless amount of trains, though most trains that were arriving never seemed to carry much, if any, passengers. Especially when coming back from the coastal regions.

And for very good and patient listeners there were other noises beside these normal sounds which were usually associated with the city. Noises that seemed to try their hardest to not be noises at all. Small, creeping noises of whispered conversations between tired citizens, the soft tapping of feet through the sewers of a couple that's trying to get out of the city and take their changes with the outside world, a woman crying in one of the many gray, depressing apartment blocks, and of course the tapping of Barney Calhoun's fingers on a Combine console located in a desolated apartment building, trying to hack into the system with his low civil protection clearance.

His hands flew over the console, tapping away as alien information scrolled across the screen in front of him. Working feverishly, Barney tried to take in the information and keep an eye on the door at the same time. He only had a little while before one of the others on duty was bound to step in the small office room and notice what he was doing.

Though the civil protection consisted almost entirely of humans who willingly signed up for the job themselves, most of the CP's working in city 17 could be called anything but human. A lot of the people who signed up did it because of the privileges they were given, better food rest en freedom, but quickly became hungry for more. Additional privileges were given to CP's who voluntarily have their memory replaced, and that seemed to happen a lot around here. Even when a officer had not gone through the process yet willingly, they were often stressed to do so, and most gave in to so much pressure.

But even then there were people who did not like the idea of having their memories replaced, Barney knew, as he was one of them. But somehow after a while those were the soldiers that quietly disappeared, taken to Nova Prospect or the citadel and they often never came back to work in the civil protection. It was never said what happened to them in the lower ranks of the civil protection, but everyone could guess. It was just a fact that anybody signing up to become a metro cop didn't last long. Not as human anyway.

Thanks to Barney's own inventiveness, and a lot of luck, he had not yet been confronted with direct assimilation and memory replacement by the Combine, and still had his own light-hearted, good old personality. This wasn't only lucky for the Black Mesa survivor himself, but also a lot of other people, mainly oppressed, unfortunate citizens that had survived the seven hour war, but had now come in direct contact with other horrors, and wanted to get away or do something about it.

It had now been nine years since the first invasion of the Combine, and three years since the absolute control of city 17, the human race has suffered terrible losses and had come under the direct rule of the Combine Empire, who tried their hardest to make the Earth as inhospitable as possible. Any surviving members of the human race had been gathered together in suburban cities, while others were left to die in the rapidly changing ecosystem of the planet.

Normal earthly wildlife was scarce, and Barney couldn't for the life of him remember the last time he had seen something as simple as a cow in the past few years, though there did seemed to be other surviving earth creatures beside humans here and there. Occasionally one could observe a cat roaming the streets of City 17, but Barney believed that most species were either extinct or dangerously close to it. In stead the Xen wildlife had taken over the planet, forcing the surviving humans to keep together in cities under the close watch and tight rule of the Combine empire. To be honest, Barney sometimes thought that those that were left behind in the wastelands were luckier than those trapped in the cities. He knew what horrors took place here.

But right now the former security guard's attention was not on those outside the city, but those inside. To be specific; those contained by the civil protection (had there ever been a more ironic title for such a group of soldiers?), those that were unlucky enough to have been located inside or near the sewers when the Combine suddenly organized an unexpected 'search, find, contain and cure' mission in the old canals and sewers near the centre of the city a couple of days ago.

Barney had been on duty that day, but had been completely surprised by the sudden deploy of troops and the swift end they made to a part of the underground canal network of small groups of 'resistance' that were trying to smuggle people out into the industrial canals, after which they could safely reach the town of Ravenholm. Barney had been horrified when he saw how many exactly had been contained by the Overwatch, but luckily it didn't seem to be a precise attack on the whole network of resistance in the canals. Rather it seemed a random attack on unauthorized citizens who were behaving suspiciously. Barney didn't think they actually knew much, if anything, about the attempts the resistance were making to get people out of the city.

The underground resistance, if they could really call it that, was relatively new and very small still. Though Barney would never admit it, the group was disorganized and had very little equipment. The seemingly random attack and containment of people in such a small area of the city had still been a major blow to the underground network, leaving very little people to coordinate the escape of any other humans out of the area.

In the dimly lit room of the department building, block C11, of city 17, Barney was now trying to find out where exactly the prisoners were being kept and when the next full shipment of handy new personnel for the combine was going to leave to Nova Prospect, because that was undoubtedly going to happen to the captured citizens. He hoped he could save them from the nightmare they would have to endure in Nova Prospect, and was planning to hinder the Overwatch in any way possible to prevent them from succeeding in transporting the captured citizens to the former prison.

Every time Barney tried to read any information regarding the raid, he would be denied access with his limited security clearance, which frustrated him immensely. It would have been easier if Barney had held a higher rank within the Civil Protection, he had served them long enough. But promotion were only for those who had gone through the Combine method of 'enhancement'; memory wiping, genetic engineering, organ transplants...every time you wanted to climb the ranks you had to give away more of your humanity, and Barney would never be prepared to do that. What was the point anyway? After being promoted he wouldn't remember what he needed the higher security clearance for, since he would have had his memory replaced! The Overwatch couldn't be called humans. They were regarded as Combine, treated as Combine and would follow any command without questions. Super Soldiers some would call them. Absolute Terrors was a more appropriate name according to Barney.


	2. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

An interesting encounter

Barney accessed a file he hoped contained information about the razor trains that travelled to Nova Prospect. Maybe he could find a name he recognized, heck, maybe even a citizen's number. The file popped up and showed the timetables regarding the trains, and other trivial information. He tried opening the passengers list (simply called the 'shipment information' which left Barney slightly disturbed) but the information appeared to be classified. Which wasn't unusual for some razor trains, but seemed a bit odd in this case.

Deciding to take the risk, since there were very little options left for him, Barney tried to disable the security and hack into the file using a few tricks he had picked up the past few years. He knew the risk of being detected by the system, and almost felt as if someone was looking over his shoulder. Feeling that time was of essence, he temporarily focused all of his attention on the console. His heart lifted when the file opened itself and a list of names showed up. He gave a small sigh of relief and continued to read the file.

Train KH-909-C Station B3

Gilberto, F - 17860 - C1

Gadd, H - 18794 - C2

Madiev, B - 21989 - C3

UNKOWN, - 00001 - C4

Kade, M - 18349 - C5

Cooper, R- 21576 - D1

The list went on and on, and Barney scanned through it. He knew most of the people on the list were just unfortunate citizens who had been in the wrong place at the wrong time. It seemed that the first train wasn't going to ship anyone he knew that were captured during the raid, and he felt a small pang of guilt as he closed the file; He would just leave these people to their fate, even though he knew what lay in store for them...

The second one didn't reveal any clues either. He had almost completed the third list when suddenly he saw a name that stirred his memory.

Kellerman, L - 12738 - F3

Kellerman... Lukas! He remembered the bony blond guy with his distinctive German accent. Looking further down the list he saw more names that were familiar. It seemed he had found them, and judging from the station that the train would leave from it seemed they were close by, probably in the same block Barney was currently in. And the only other Combine detainment checkpoint was barely around the corner. Looking back at the timetable, Barney saw with a shock that the train would be leaving tomorrow, early in the morning. If the people had any change of escaping their gruesome fate, they had to be rescued tonight. There wasn't any time left to devise a plan. Barney cursed softly within the safety of his combine helmet; He was fresh out of ideas, and just barging in to free the prisoners wouldn't do any of them any good.

He quickly closed the file and tried not to leave any evidence that could point to him having accessed the files. He glanced towards the door from the corner of his eye, realizing that he had not kept a close watch on it during his search of the lists. None of his fellow metro cops had come barging in yet, but he couldn't be too careful. Of course he would probably have been alerted by their loud radio chatter if they had come up the stairs, and luckily all was quiet.

With a sudden uneasiness Barney realized it was too quiet; The presence of the civil protection in this apartment block had been noticeable from any part of the building, their movement and soft radio chatter had still been faintly audible when he had entered the room, but now everything was dead silent. He stiffened, realizing something was wrong, and kept his back towards the door. He listened intently, trying to pick up any strange sounds when suddenly he spotted a movement in the reflection of the console. With a start, Barney came into action, just as there was a soft click audible in the room. Barney let himself drop to the ground and a moment later the click was followed by a bang and the screen he had been standing in front exploded, showering the glass like material around the room.

"Shit!" It was a short panicked curse, but clearly a woman's voice. Barney didn't lose any time and hurriedly got up as another shot rang through the air, missing him just barely.

"Wait!" He yelled, trying to understand what was going on. He was being attacked by a human, and whatever she was up to she clearly had something against the Civil Protection. However, his plea came out scrambled through his mask and the inhuman voice of a combine soldier filled the room. He tried to grab his own weapon while charging towards the woman. The woman yelped as Barney collided with her, and his only thought was on disarming her. They both fell to the ground and the woman's weapon flew from her hand upon impact, skidding across the floor and coming to a halt a few meters away. Barney had little time to get back into a sitting position before a knee collided with his face and a elbow hit him in his side, causing him to sprawl backwards. The woman stood over him, preparing to give him a painful blow to his head, but Barney took his side arm and lifted it to target the woman's chest.

"Stop!" He screamed, trying to ignore the twangs of pain from both his nose and side. The woman stopped in mid blow, hesitating for a second, before letting her arms fall back beside her sides. A panicked look was visible in her eyes as they darted around the room, trying to find a possible change of escape. Barney hurriedly scrambled up into a standing position while keeping his pistol trained on the woman. He carefully shuffled towards the other weapon and picked it up from the floor while keeping his eyes on the woman. She tensed up and her eyes flew from him towards the door; she seemed as if she wanted to make a run for it.

Now, with both weapons in his possession, Barney thought it save to remove the front of his mask The mouldy and dusty air of the old apartment room rushed towards his face. He let the mask fall on the wooden floor and glared at the woman.

"Who the _hell_ are you?" He demanded, taking a few steps back while lifting his left hand to wipe his face. It came back bloody, but he paid no attention to that. Instead he kept his eyes fixed on the woman. She seemed quite young. She was slender with short black hair and a slight tint, most noticeably was her choice of clothing, not the standard civil suits that most citizens wore, but a bunch of clothing combined together to make an unique outfit, with a plain blue t-shirt and a pair of jeans. She looked momentarily confused, and stood there helplessly.

"But, you're one of them!" She said, ignoring his question and almost seeming to accuse him of something. "What...who are you?" She asked, looking at him suspiciously. Barney frowned slightly and felt as if the conversation wasn't following the normal set of rules.

"I thought I was the one asking the questions?" He said, and his gaze shifted towards the gun in his hand for a second, as if to point out it was _him_ who was in possession of a weapon at the moment, even though this little detail could not have possible escaped the woman's notice.

"The others, downstairs, you killed them?" Barney asked, trying to find out why exactly the woman had been so keen on trying to end his life prematurely. The woman just glared back, stubbornly keeping her mouth closed. Barney waved his left hand, signalling towards the door. "Look! I don't give a damn what happened to those guys, but what I do like to know is why I'm being freakin' shot at!"

The sudden outburst was met with silence and the woman's face betrayed a whole set of emotions as she tried to asses the situation. There was a longer moment of silence and Barney sighed. "We can stand here all night like this, but I'm quite sure the death of a whole squad of civil protection is not going to be unnoticed for long. And by then this place will be crawling with CP's and you and I both know you're not going to like that." He paused and stared into her eyes. "So...?"

The woman shifted uneasily, before deciding she _did _want to talk, though she refrained from answering any questions. "You're not like them?" She asked carefully, with a hint of disgust when she said 'them'.

"Who? The Combine?" Barney asked, and the woman gave a slight nod. "Hell no!" He answered, but looking down towards his uniform he realized this maybe seemed a bit hard to believe. "I don't actually work them, I..." He tried to search for the right words, but quickly gave up because he realized he wasn't here to explain himself.

"Look, I don't have time for this. You give me some answers or I'm going to march you straight towards the nearest combine checkpoint and let my dear fellow soldiers try to get something out of you." Barney threatened, knowing full well he would never be able to do that, but he was kind of getting desperate for answers. Besides, he had little time as it was, and this confrontation hadn't been exactly what he had expected.

The young woman's eyes widened, and her mind seemed to race to find possible solutions. Barney noted that she seemed desperate herself, and he guessed she was probably a person like any other, who had found herself in a bad situation just like the rest of them. He decided he wasn't going to harm her if he could help it, but immediately trusting her seemed a bit to early, too.

The woman sighed and finally gave in. "I...I just came here for some information." She began, and Barney raised his eyebrows, giving her a sceptic look.

"Geez, woman, you sure go through some lengths to 'just get some information'," he said sarcastically, "What can possibly be important enough to take such risks?"

The woman bit her lip, and seemed to give up her defensive posture. Her shoulder fell and she looked down. "It's someone I know, he...he got taken by the civil protection a few days ago, and I'm sure they're going to deport him to Nova Prospect!" She clenched her fists and looked up. "I can't allow that to happen, he can't be turned into one of those...those...things! If that happens then...well, I can't allow it, because..." She suddenly trailed off, as if the next part she was going to say was hard to put in words. There was a moment of silence and then Barney tried to guess the end of the sentence.

"...because you love him?" He ventured, lowering his weapon slightly, stunned that something like romance could still exist in this world. However, the woman's head shot up and a bewildered expression was on her face.

"What? No!" She replied, looking thoroughly confused. "Don't be ridiculous!" Taken aback by the sudden explosion of emotions, Barney lifted his hands in fake self defence. "Whoa, relax, I didn't mean anything by it. I mean," he said, looking hopelessly towards the woman, "I don't even know the guy!" He couldn't believe he was actually having this conversation, especially at this precise time.

The woman was still glaring at him, apparently offended by his comments, and Barney decided to take some action. "Well, I'd loved to have helped you find him, but, " He motioned towards the still smoking screen of the command panel, "seeing that you completely _obliterated _our only access to the combine database, and killed off every single member of my squad...I don't see us having much choice other than to go to another combine checkpoint, or just forget about the whole thing." he finished, watching her closely. As soon as he had finished his sentence, the woman looked up alarmed at the second choice and Barney sighed. "Okay, so plan B is not an option."

He waited for a few moments, thinking about what the hell he was going to do next, while the woman stared at him hopefully. He threw up his arms in exasperation, his mood darkening and feeling a bit hopeless. "I can't believe this, you expect me to help someone who tried to kill me just a few moments ago?" He exclaimed, but in a tone of voice that suggested he didn't really need an answer to the question. "Listen, I normally wouldn't get try to get into so much trouble trying to safe what's-his-name, but-"

"Cubbage, Odessa Cubbage." The woman interrupted, looking slightly uncomfortable. This revelation was met with stunned silence from Barney, who couldn't quite belief his ears.

"What? As in...Colonel Cubbage," He ventured, surprise and unbelief written on his face, "that goof!" The woman slowly gave an acknowledging nod.

"You know him?" She asked, and Barney stood there shaking his head.

"Who doesn't know him?" He exclaimed, "He's a freakin' idiot, what can he possibly have achieved that justifies the risk of a rescue mission?" The woman gave a shaky laugh, and shook her head.

"Yeah, it's hard to belief but he actually managed to get a hold onto some...valuable information before he got himself captured." She explained. "He's probably going to get deported sometime tomorrow, and I came here to find out where he was being held, we can't risk to lose the data he collected." She finished. Something stirred in Barney's mind as he suddenly realized something.

"So you say he got captured a few days ago..." He said, "If I may ask...did this happen, to be exact, last Wednesday around noon, near the centre of the city?" He asked, dreading the answer.

"Yes! How did you know?" The woman replied, her eyes betraying her surprise of his knowledge. Barney groaned, realizing now what had happened that faithful day. Undoubtedly the information the 'colonel' had gathered was important enough for the Combine to send a search party after him, and knowing Odessa, he would probably just taken the underground sewers to get to a safe place. Not realizing the risk he had taken by making this decision, he had involuntarily led the Combine to an underground resistance hide out. No wonder the Overwatch had detained so many people!

"Don't worry about finding another Combine checkpoint," Barney said, annoyance bubbling up inside of him. "I know where he's being held."

"You do?" The woman asked, surprised. "How?" Barney gave a slight smile as he realized that maybe the arrival of the strange young woman was exactly what he had needed.

"Well, the way I see it, we're both in the same boat, and I could use your help peddling." He said, and lowered his weapon, holstering the second one.

"You see, I'm going to take a risk and trust you, but I have to be able to trust you that you trust me...you get my point?" He asked, not making much sense at all. However, the woman just nodded and gave a small smile.

"I think any doubt about you being a Combine soldier has long since disappeared, seeing otherwise I would have been dead by now, Mr...?" She said, looking confidently now that she knew her planned rescue mission could finally get on it's way.

"Calhoun, Barney Calhoun. And you are?" The undercover Civil Protection officer asked, extending his hand in the process.

"I'm Alyx." The woman said, looking a bit confused at hand but finally accepting it. Barney grinned when he saw her look.

"I know we got off with quite a rocky start, but there's no reason for us to not have a proper introduction." He explained his actions, shaking her hand. "Now as to clean up this mess..."


	3. Chapter 2

AN:The next chapter is here. Hope you enjoy!

Distorded Mirrors: You're absolutely right about the ending of the prologue, I actually hadn't written it as an ending, but as part as chapter 1. However, before uploading it, for some weird reason I decided to add the first sequence as a prologue and the rest of the chapter as chapter 1. Thank you very much for your review, and I hope I well be getting more advanced critique, because I appreciate the time you take to improve my writing.

BlindAcquiescence: Thank you for the review and I hope I will manage to keep you entertained with the chapters yet to come. As to your question: I don't think Dr. Kleiner was seen throughout Half life, or Half life: Blue shift. Barney (Calhoun, that is) escaped with the help of three scientist, the most important being Dr. Rosenberg. We never knew how Kleiner, Dr. Vance, or any of the other scientist escaped, and for my story I'm just assuming they never met again with Barney, or any of the other survivors before city 17. I'm here to tell you how they met and how the real resistance started. (Well, my take on things anyway) :)

Enjoy!

Chapter 2

The rescue

It was quite dark on the corridor that led to the stairs. Barney noted that most of the lights had been disabled, probably thanks to Alyx. He tucked his face mask under his left arm, not wanting to put it back on just yet, and headed towards the stairway. Alyx followed him closely and didn't seem to concerned about being heard by anyone.

"I guess you took out the whole squad then." Barney said, observing her behaviour, and raised his eyebrows. Alyx just refrained from answering, and kept going. Barney looked as she moved past him and decided to not give up just yet. "How did you manage to take them all out without allerting anyone?"

"I didn't." Alyx answered, sighing. "Those that were in the same room sure as hell noticed that I was there. But I disabled their radios."

"You did?" Barney asked, awed at this revelation. "That explains a lot. How did you manage that?"

"Thanks to this." Alyx replied, holding up a small device that wasn't like anything the undercover civil protection officer had ever seen before. It seemed as if had been custom made, consisting of parts carefully welded together by experienced hands but with the help of inadequate tools.

"What is it?" Barney said, reaching out to take it. However, Alyx seemed to be a bit protective of it and snatched it away from his grasp. This resulted in a fake hurtful look from the former security officer.

"This," Alyx said, turning the tool in her hands while admiring it. "mister Calhoun, is probably one of our most promising tools. It allows us to hack into Combine systems, though it takes a bit of time. It's still a prototype, but I must admit it worked quite well on this mission."

"You can hack into systems using _that?_" Barney asked, not sure if he was supposed to laugh or be impressed.

"I used it to disable the main radio system in this building, so the Combine wouldn't be able to contact other outposts. However, radio contact between the same squad was still possible..." She said this with a thoughtful look at Barney. "Actually, I'm surprised you weren't alerted by their alarm calls."

Suddenly Barney flushed and shook his head. "I...disabled my radio set. I was busy with my own 'little mission', and didn't want to be interrupted or called upon for a routine inspection. Frankly, I thought if they came to check on me I could just blame it on a malfunction of some sort." He said, thinking back now he thought it quite foolish of himself. Alyx nodded in understanding, though and started to make her way down the first flight of stairs. They lapsed in comfortable silence for a while, before Alyx reached the beginning of a new hall way and decided this was the time to tell him what had been slightly bothering her.

"If we're going to get those people out of there, we need a plan." She pointed out, carefully stepping over a blown out apartment door that lay across their path.

"Don't worry, I think I have an idea." Barney answered, almost tripping over the same wooden door. He steadied himself, and decided to leave it at that and just continue their previous conversation. "If you don't mind me asking, what _exactly_ is it that Cubbage had to find out?"

"Odessa? Oh, just some data on combine technology." Alyx said, waving her hand vaguely while rounding the corner and coming up to the end of the hall way. "If you really want to know, we're trying to find out if the Combine have figured out to use the concept of entanglement. We're on our way to try and use the borderworld as an 'unexpressed axis', and-" Suddenly she stopped, eyed Barney and then shook her head. "Wait, you probably don't understand any of this. It's like the concept of the portal---" However, before she could explain herself more clearly, Barney interrupted her;

"Sounds to me as if you're trying to work on teleportation!" He gave a shaky laugh. "But even I know nobody would be stupid enough to try that again after what happened at Black Mesa."

Alyx looked at Barney curiously. "You know about the concept of teleportation?" She asked, clearly surprised by the man's understanding of her scientific explanation.

"Well, yes. And I should! You pick up a thing or two when you're working as a security guard at earth's first teleport research facility." He answered her question. Alyx halted, unbelief written on her face.

"You worked at Black Mesa?" She exclaimed, clearly not suspecting that answer. Barney nodded and gave her a sad smile.

"Yeah. And let's just say that I experienced first hand why you shouldn't mess with such dangerous technology."

"But that means you survived the resonance cascade...we didn't belief there were any others." Alyx muttered, suddenly lost in thought.

"I escaped and saved a couple of scientists in the process. I was just really lucky." The former Black Mesa employee said, clenching his fists. "I don't think a lot of others escaped, if any."

"But if you know about the teleportation, that means you've probably met a couple of the scientist that worked there." Alyx stated, frowning.

"Yeah, It's hard to miss those stubborn stuck up arrogant bastards." Barney muttered darkly. Alyx looked up in surprise.

"Were they really that bad?" She asked, giving a slight smile, thinking of her own father who had worked there before the Combine invasion. "I find that hard to belief."

"Well a lot of them were. To us 'lowly' security guards, anyway. They felt themselves superior, and only saw us as an annoying necessity." Barney replied. Clearly the man had taken this behaviour as a direct insult.

"Of course there were a couple who were not so bad at all." He admitted. "I happen to have escaped with the help of Dr. Rosenberg. I hadn't met him before the cascade, but I _had_ heard of him! Dr. Keller was always complaining about him." He laughed, "But you had others, too, like Dr. Kleiner and of course Gordon..." He trailed off, feeling slightly uncomfortable with the subject.

"You worked with them?" Alyx asked, getting more and more surprised with everything the man in front of her revealed about his past.

"We were friends...sort of." Barney said, smiling sadly. "Dr. Kleiner was the one who got me transferred to Black Mesa...Of course they're probably all dead now. Gordon got trapped in the border world, but I never found out what happened to the rest of them, including Kleiner, after the incident."

There was a stunned silence from Alyx, who tried to think of what to say. "But, don't you know?" She asked, feeling slightly weird at this unusual piece of news.

"Know what?" Barney asked, confused by her strange reaction to his revelations.

"Dr. Kleiner survived, along with a couple of other Black Mesa employees, including my dad, Dr Eli Vance!" Alyx replied, her eyes locked with those of the man in front of her, who stared at her in shock.

"He's still alive?" He repeated, shaking his head as if to clear up his mind. "Wow, I never thought...This is so unexpected, I'm so...relieved to know he made it!"

"Yes! He's here in city 17, working with my father on a method to use Xen as a slingshot during teleportation, so we can achieve a form of reliable local transport!"

Barney halted in mid motion, "Relief is gone now." He said in a monotone voice, before returning to himself; "Teleportation, _and_ Dr. Kleiner is involved!..." He exclaimed. Alyx took a step back, frightened by the sudden outburst.

"We're all doomed." Barney muttered, burrowing his face in his hands.

* * *

Allan Kestler traced the form of one of the many small tiles that covered the floor with his right hand because of lack of anything better to do. Not that he was bored, on the contrary; His heart was hammering in his chest and he his ears listened intently to anything that might be happening outside. Rather, he made the movements with his hand to preoccupy his mind so that he did not dwell on what might come to pass in the next few hours. He swallowed slowly, trying to not make a noise, and looked to the man beside him. His name was Victor, and Allan had come to know the man in the past few months as a silent but interesting type. He had a full grown beard, and his bushy eyebrows leaned heavily above his sunken eyes that stared intently through the forcefield. They seemed to burrow themselves into the opposing wall, and Allan was almost surprised to see that it did not crumble under the intense and accusing stare of the man. He thought better not to comment and instead looked over to his other side, where the pale face of Lukas was just visible underneath his arms that were wrapped tightly around his knees. It seemed as if Lukas wanted to shut himself off from the outside world, and Allan noticed the young man was softly mumbling to himself. He turned his head back and looked at the two Combine overwatch officers that were standing outside the forcefield. They hadn't moved or talked much the past few hours, but he kept a close eye on them nevertheless.

The group had been transferred to this checkpoint only a few hours earlier, during the beginning of the evening. Though it was well into the night by now, nobody dared to fall asleep. Allan knew they were close to the train station as he could hear the coming and going of the trains. Every time the far away alert and klaxon could be heard of a new train, Allan said op straightly, abandoning his trace work, and instead listened carefully, dreading the door would open and Combine soldier would come in and take them away.

It was a nerve wreaking situation, and Allan felt as if he was kept awake only by the pure amount of adrenaline that was surging through his veins. He didn't know how long he could keep this up before passing out, but there was no way he would allow himself to fall asleep. Somehow there was still a tiny bit of hope in the back of his mind. Maybe, possibly, if the right moment would arrive they had a change of surviving this all. But to be able to take advantage of that moment he had to keep himself awake. So, that was why he kept on tracing the tiles, focusing on the noises that managed to penetrate the walls, the two Overwatch soldiers outside the forcefield and the door that lead outside. They all knew what was to come, and they all knew there was little change of escaping it.

The faint sound of a horn from the train station could be heard, and Allan help his breath. He noticed that the whole group seemed to sit up straighter, and even Victor tensed up a bit. All eyes came to rest on the door, and there was a moment of silence. When nothing happened, they all let themselves fall back slightly.

"I can't take this!" A sudden voice rang out, though not to loud in fear of the guards. Allan turned to see who had said this, though he could have guessed with the think English accent that accompanied it. Odessa looked vary pale and a slight tremble was visible in his hands as he let them rest on his bowed head. Of course this whole thing had been the colonel's fault, but nobody felt like pointing it out as they all awaited the same faith, anyway. Before the colonel could possibly say anything further about his emotional state, however, one of the Overwatch soldiers stepped up to the forcefield and let his hand rest on the shock stick that was hanging from his side.

"Silence, citizen!" The distorted and menacing voice of the officer rang through the air and the people around Odessa involuntarily shuffled away from him. Odessa looked up alarmed, and panic was in his eyes once he realized the guards intentions. He opened his mouth to speak, but he was interrupted when the door suddenly flew open with a loud bang. Allan's adrenaline level surged and he thought he might be in the process of having an heart attack when a Civil Protection soldier stepped through the doorway, followed closely by a young woman. The whole group took in an collective breath as they watched the new arrivals with fearful eyes.

"We have an outbreak!" The new soldier exclaimed, pushing the woman in front of him. "Anticitizen activity in apartment block C 11. Team down!" The crackle of his radio was still audible when one of the guards stepped up.

"Report!" The soldier barked, clearly of an higher rank, and the new officer shoved the woman forward yet again, though harder this time. The woman stumbled and shot a venomous glare towards the soldier.

"Unexpected attack, 5 casualties. This female citizen was captured but a male one has been spotted and gotten away, possibly more. Advising backup." The soldier reported, and the higher ranking officer stepped towards the command console.

"Alert, all teams, Anti citizen activity reported in sector C 11. Outbreak!" The inhuman voice reported over the radio, accompanied by all it's glorious fizzles and clicks, before the soldier took towards the door.

"Unit 48902, lock up prisoner and report to checkpoint 8B." The Overwatch officer ordered, and left through the door just as a faint alarm could be heard going off in the distance and the female voice of the Combine radio unit filled the room as it directed any nearby combine patrol troops.

The second Overwatch soldier began tapping away on the command console like mad, and the new CP unit shoved the woman forward towards the forcefield. Allan jumped up, not really knowing why he was doing this, but his movement was followed by the majority of the group. The CP soldier took out it's weapon and reached out to deactivate small portion of the forcefield when suddenly the voice of Odessa rang through the air again.

"Alyx?" He exclaimed, unbelief written on his face. Allan looked to see if the woman acknowledged Odessa, but if they did know each other, she did not show it. The CP unit turned his attention towards the old English man, taking out his shock stick, clearly intending to use it.

"Citizen, step b-" However, whatever he was going to say next was stopped short when the young woman trusted her elbow into the soldier's chest with great force, and successfully floored him with the help of her right foot. The unit let out a small cry and the second soldier looked around, alarmed. He reached out for his weapon, but his motion was cut short when the woman shot the soldier with great accuracy. The soldier fell to the ground with a loud thud, and a eerie beep came from his helmet. The beep was followed by the female voice of the radio unit, that was informing the room that the unit was, in fact, dead. The woman then took out the two camera's on both sides of the room in quick succession. Allan had little time to take in the action, and was completely at loss as to how and where the woman had managed to get the weapon from so quickly.

"Yes!" The colonel cried, and pointed excitedly towards the soldier that was still laying on the ground. "Quickly, shoot him and get us out of here!" He exclaimed, practically jumping up and down. Allan held his breath, not daring to belief what he was seeing. The woman turned around to look at the soldier, who surprisingly was still laying flat on his back. Suddenly, his excitement was turned into terror when he saw the woman extending her hand to help the soldier up and gave him his weapon back. The room fell into silence, and all eyes stared in shock at the scene that was unfolding itself in front of them.

"What in God's name are you doing, you idiot!" Odessa exclaimed, a look of absolute horror on his face. The soldier looked at Odessa for a second and then directed his attention down towards the shock stick that he was still holding in his right hand. He turned towards the woman;

"Do you want me to shock him anyway?" He asked nonchalantly, followed by the fizzles and clicks of his radio. This resulted in an even deeper silence, before Allan suddenly realized what was going on. He stepped forward, not daring to belief that this was all actually happening.

"Barney? Is that you?" He asked. He couldn't think of anyone else who would make such a comment in such a situation, and he nervously laughed to himself.

"Yes it is me, thank you Allan." Barney replied, though the sarcasm was lost because he still had his combine helmet on, which distorted his voice. He took off the front mask, revealing his face, and reached out to deactivate the forcefield.

"Okay guys, this is the plan; You're going to follow Miss Alyx Vance here through the sewers, she'll be able to take you somewhere save. I'm going to stay here and try to direct the Overwatch soldiers somewhere else. No doubt they have already been alerted so I want everyone to go now. And by now, I mean _right now_!" He yelled, directing them towards the back door. Not losing any time, Allan scrambled out of the room, followed closely be the rest of the group.

Barney halted Alyx as she holstered her own weapon and made for the door. "I know I said I'd come with you, but don't wait for me, take these people out of the sewers and somewhere save." He said, and Alyx frowned at him.

"How will you be able to find Kleiner's lab on your own?" She asked, wanting to make sure if this was a good idea.

"Look, they'll be looking all over for you, I would really appreciate it if you get these people off the streets first." He gave a small grin. "Besides, I can always visit this so called lab of Kleiner another time. You've got my people with you, they'll be able to find me." He finished. Alyx nodded and opened the door to lead the group down through the canal and into the sewers.

"Good luck!" Barney yelled as he watched the dark forms of the group scramble towards the low bridge on this side of the bank. It was dark, so he only listened to the faint sounds of splashing to confirm that the group was jumping down into the dark, polluted water of the canal. He sighed, put his face mask back on and returned inside to face the music.


End file.
